2-Peter - 1:7



7 and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of 2-Peter 1:7.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love.
And in godliness, love of brotherhood; and in love of brotherhood, charity.
in godliness brotherly love, in brotherly love love:
and in your godliness love of the brethren; and in your love of the brethren love.
and in the piety the brotherly kindness, and in the brotherly kindness the love;
along with power of endurance, godliness; along with godliness, brotherly affection; and along with brotherly affection, love.
And love of the brothers to fear of God, and to love of the brothers, love itself.
and in piety, love of brotherhood; and in love of brotherhood, charity.
piety by mutual affection, and mutual affection by love.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

And to godliness brotherly kindness - Love to Christians as such. See the John 13:34 note; Hebrews 13:1 note.
And to brotherly kindness charity - Love to all mankind. There is to be a special affection for Christians as of the same family; there is to be a true and warm love, however, for all the race. See the notes at 1 Cor. 13.

Brotherly kindness - Φιλαδελφιαν· Love of the brotherhood - the strongest attachment to Christ's flock; feeling each as a member of your own body.
Charity - Αγαπην· Love to the whole human race, even to your persecutors: love to God and the brethren they had; love to all mankind they must also have. True religion is neither selfish nor insulated; where the love of God is, bigotry cannot exist. Narrow, selfish people, and people of a party, who scarcely have any hope of the salvation of those who do not believe as they believe, and who do not follow with them, have scarcely any religion, though in their own apprehension none is so truly orthodox or religious as themselves.
After αγαπην, love, one MS. adds these words, εν δε τη αγαπῃ την παρακλησιν, and to this love consolation; but this is an idle and useless addition.

Without which, godliness, or external worship, or a profession of religion, is a vain show; for this is both the evidence of regeneration, and of the truth and power of real godliness; and also the beauty, comfort, and security of Christian society and worship, and without which they cannot be maintained with peace, profit, and honour:
and to brotherly kindness, charity: or "love"; that is, to all men, enemies, as well as to the household of faith; and to God and Christ, to his house, worship, ordinances, people and truths. Charity is more extensive in its objects and acts than brotherly kindness or love. As faith leads the van, charity brings up the rear, and is the greatest of all.

"And in your godliness brotherly kindness"; not suffering your godliness to be moroseness, nor a sullen solitary habit of life, but kind, generous, and courteous [ALFORD]. Your natural affection and brotherly kindness are to be sanctified by godliness. "And in your brotherly kindness love," namely, to all men, even to enemies, in thought, word, and deed. From brotherly kindness we are to go forward to love. Compare 1-Thessalonians 3:12, "Love one toward another (brotherly kindness), and toward all men (charity)." So charity completes the choir of graces in Colossians 3:14. In a retrograde order, he who has love will exercise brotherly kindness; he who has brotherly kindness will feel godliness needful; the godly will mix nothing stoical with his patience; to the patient, temperance is easy; the temperate weighs things well, and so has knowledge; knowledge guards against sudden impulse carrying away its virtue [BENGEL].

And to godliness brotherly kindness - No sullenness, sternness, moroseness: "sour godliness," so called, is of the devil. Of Christian godliness it may always be said, "Mild, sweet, serene, and tender is her mood, Nor grave with sternness, nor with lightness free: Against example resolutely good, Fervent in zeal, and warm in charity." And to brotherly kindness love - The pure and perfect love of God and of all mankind. The apostle here makes an advance upon the preceding article, brotherly kindness, which seems only to relate to the love of Christians toward one another.

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